Goooooooooooooaaaaaaaalllllll!!

This post is especially for Nana and Poppi :) since they won't be able to come out in time to see James play this soccer season. I think they will be happy with the photos and videos of this match. My parents were in town and it was match 3 for the Panthers (really their 2nd game since match 2 got rained out). James was ready to go and happy that it was finally nice and warm out for his game.

The assistant coach seen here is a dad of one of the girls on the team. He really loves to get the team pumped up and cheerful. He'll chant, 

"Who are we?" and the kids will clap and yell back "Panthers!".

Before the match they will do practice drills. Here is James #10 practicing his goal shots.

James hustled and went after the ball a lot better this time. In the first photo above he is behind the net trying to keep the ball in bounds and get it into the goal. In the 2nd photo above you can see he put his fast speed to use and got the ball all the way across the field but missed the goal by a foot.

Luckily mom had her camera rolling and caught James' FIRST GOAL on video. I was fumbling around with my camera, and as I looked up James made the shot into the goal. Woo hoo, way to go James! And woo hoo way to go Oma for catching it on video! It was a good match up with the Panthers playing the Dynamos. Madeline kept score (they don't keep score at this age) and I believe the Panthers won. What is most important is the kids had fun!

After the game the assistant coach always gathers the whole team and chants, "Who do we appreciate?..."Dynamos!" "Who do we appreciate?"..."Dynamos!" "Who are we?"..."the Panthers!". Then the kids shake hands with the other team. It's really cute.

We all really enjoyed watching James and the kids play. :)